O yes, it’s that time of year again.. Spruce Tip season.. As I was mowing in the diamond garden, I looked at the spruce tree’s an saw that its spruce tip picking season and that the pollen is going to be at the perfect picking this weekend.  I love my spruce tips in a big way.  I have chosen this post to re-share for the 31 day challenge with a link at the bottom to many more ways to use spruce tips 🙂 Enjoy..

so many things to do, such a small window of time to make it happen with the lovely fresh soft tips.. This is to my eye pretty much a perfect tip, it’s on the bigger side, but it’s still soft, light green and still tightly together..

Picked but need to be cleaned.. those paper caps need to come off..

Gave them a rub and then used the bowl and the wind outside allow with my breath to winnow most of it off.. and then hand-picked off the rest..

Now that is a stunning butch of tips.. I had lost the light and used the flash on this photo but the color in real life is outstanding..

Into the pint jar they went and covered in pickling vinegar, some years I use apple Cider, one year I tried it with white wine (that was interesting) and I have tried small batches with red wine and rice wine -play around with it..  place your jar into a cool, dark place and let it sit for at least six weeks, shaking it at least once a week ideally.. then start testing it to see where it sits with your taste buds.

The flavoured vinegar can be used in many ways.. but think of it as a northern Balstmic and you are ahead of the game in melding of flavours but if you tried some of the different wine or rice.. the basic under tones typically are citrus like..

I will do a few recipes with it later in the year.. now is the putting it up time 🙂

for more ideas.. check out my overview page on how to use Spruce tips 🙂